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Wednesday, April 30, 2014

We just came back from a very relaxing vacation in the beautiful Beaujolais wine region in France. With all of our spa-visiting, wine-tasting and going to bed at 11 pm, it felt more like we were in our sixties than in our twenties but it felt so good to just take things easy and unwind for a few days.
We visited the beautiful Annecy, we went to the Fete des Crus and we slept two nights in this beautiful bed and breakfast in the middle of the vineyards. I usually don't like isolation, I'm a city girl at heart, I can walk alone in the city at night but the pitch darkness and the rustling sounds of the countryside after dark actually terrify me, but I loved staying in this secluded paradise for a few days. We had no internet and while at first I felt a little frustrated it turned out to be a great opportunity to read a lot and simply unwind and live at a slower pace.

We had dinner on the first night with the lovely owners of the bed
and breakfast, and it was a great way to practice my french and learn a
lot about the region, the wine production and the beautfiul building we
were sleeping in, which used to be an abbandoned stone barn that the
owners bought and renovated, turning it into a cozy and eco-friendly
hotel. We had a long and interesting conversation over dinner that gave
me a better understanding of how everything is connected and intertwined
in agriculture, and how difficult it is to impact the environment as
little as possible and to control the effects of every choice. For
instance, the pesticides used in conventional vine growing are causing
the insects to die out, so there are always fewer bees and since bees are
involved in the production of honey and have a very important role in
other plantations (anything with flowers), this is causing problems for
other farmers. Yet growing vines organically requires the vineyards to
be smaller and it is often not attainable economically for farmers in
the area. Everything is connected, and what can be a positive innovation
on one side can cause problems on the other...but as far as I could
tell (with my now embarassing french skills) there is an interest in
trying to find solutions and positive innovations that take in
consideration both the economical and the ecological needs of the region
and of the people involved.
I would definitely recommend the Combe Chaudaire to anyone visiting the area.

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

This gray jacket is one of my favorite handknit posessions. As is quite evident by the shape and style, it was knit in the sixties by a friend of my grandfather's and given as a gift to my grandmother, so basically this beautiful garment has been around for about fifty years. To give you an idea of the quality, it is only now starting to slightly pill, after being worn by my grandmother and then by me for years, but I intend on keeping it anyways. I got it from my grandma back when I was in high school when my mom and I raided her closet (a real treasure chest of incredible clothes), looking for things that she wasn't going to wear anymore (or that we decided she wasn't going to wear anymore only so we could have the excuse to keep them). It was a fun and funny day and she had a lot of stories to tell about those clothes.
The lady that knit this garment was a successful lawyer living in Milan who had a passion for knitting. She loved it so much that I was told she would take her knitting on her car commute to work every day and knit when she stopped at the red traffic lights. This was a time when the historical centers of cities in Italy weren't closed off to traffic the way they are now, so traffic was intense, and she must have gotten a lot of hours of knitting done on those rides to and from work. I am pretty obsessive with my knitting myself, but I have personally never knit when blocked in traffic jams!

What I love about this jacket, a part from its history and its timeless
style (I have worn it for years and it never really felt outdated), is
the great construction and the lovely details...the cables running up
the fronts as button bands, then on the perfectly shaped collar and
around the reversible sleeve cuffs...this is just an amazingly
constructed garment!

I plan on holding on to this jacket for a long time, this is the perfect example of what it means to me to own an item that has value to it, value in the quality of the materials (I am not sure what this jacket is made of, could be wool or a wool acrylic blend, I can't really tell, but it has been around for a very long time and is still in a good enough shape to be worn without looking sloppy), value in the time and care that was put into making it, value in the fact that it has been passed on through generations and value in the fact that it is just plain beautiful, classic and timeless.

Info

Hi there. I'm Francesca and I come from Torino, Italy. I knit, I crochet, I sell what I make, and I am a bit of a crazy cat lady. This is where I ramble on about my knitting and what inspires me, hope you enjoy!